"The deuce! the deuce! if I had known this!" muttered Ménard, looking about him uneasily. They were just entering the wood.
"Oh! don't be alarmed, Monsieur Ménard," continued Dubourg; "ordinarily, the robbers confine their attentions to the one who has the money; he has to pay for the others: they tie him to a tree and strip him as bare as a worm, to make sure that he has nothing hidden in his clothing."
"That does not quiet my apprehensions at all, monsieur le baron; for, as it happens, I have charge of the money for our journey."
"Oh! if I had known that, I wouldn't have told you. I thought that Frédéric—— But in that case you must sell your life dearly. You are armed, of course?"
"I never use weapons, monsieur le baron."
"Then you must learn to use them; at this moment, we are driving through a forest where three friends of mine were killed."
"What's that! in this wood? It does seem very dense."
And Ménard glanced fearfully to right and left. It was beginning to grow dark, and that fact added to his terror.
"Drive at full speed, postilion!" he cried, in a trembling voice.
But the postilion, who had received his instructions from Dubourg, did not quicken his pace. Frédéric said nothing, but seemed lost in thought, and Dubourg took his pistols from his pocket and examined them carefully, glancing into the woods from time to time.